The phrase on everyone’s lips: AI. And rightly so. Businesses that bury their heads in the sand hoping it will bypass them, or those stuck in their ways and simply against the whole concept, will suffer. To illustrate my point, a recent survey by the Oxford Internet Institute found that having AI skills can increase a worker’s salary by up to 40% – a clear indication of the importance being placed on AI in the future of the workforce.
Those organisations even mildly interested in AI will have had a good play around with it by now. Here at Refresh, we’ve been tinkering with it, with some of us using it as an assistant and inspiration source, rather than to deliver content. However, I must say I’ve called upon midjourney once or twice to help me illustrate the creative for a pitch idea when we’ve not had chance to mock it up in all of its glory. Of course, the generative AI I’m referring to is just a tiny part of the AI spectrum. Many businesses will be using AI (or at the very least, machine learning) without even realising it is just that.
If 2023 was the year for playing around with it, I expect 2024 will be the year businesses start taking their AI strategy more seriously. Indeed, this blog post stems from conversations I’ve had with a few people from various organisations this week on AI strategy and uptake. The general consensus is: “if we don’t have a proper AI strategy in place, we shouldn’t be going hard on communicating it”. Sensible stuff, if you ask me.
Like with any emerging technology, businesses should be thinking problem first, technology second. It’s easy to get swept up in the lights and promise of emerging tech without having really considered what it’s needed for. For the companies that are really at the start of their journey, feeling that they ‘should’ be adopting AI but with no idea why or where to start, it could end up being problematic.
Interestingly, on a PRCA webinar I joined last week a commentator proposed that by the end of the year, PR/marketing/creative/digital agencies would actively be advertising for ‘head of AI’ roles. At the moment, the general consensus from speaking to other peers working in agencies is that many are setting up internal working groups to explore it – i.e people already working in the agencies with some sort of interest in learning more, but by no means specialists – but most aren’t looking to employ pros in full time roles. Yet.
Only time will tell on this, but my overarching point for this blog is that where I see issues are the companies that are going hard on communicating about AI when they don’t actually have a firm strategy in place. We talked a lot last year in communications about greenwashing (where organisations overegg their sustainability credentials to make them appear better outwardly) and maybe this year this will turn to AI-washing. It’s not as catchy, but you get my drift.
I’m not an AI expert, and I wouldn’t pretend to be, but as a communications professional, I do know that anything that a business is communicating outwardly (or indeed inwardly to colleagues) should be something it has a proper strategy on and can be backed up with proof. Anything you put out there in public is open to be dissected and questioned. As AI becomes more widely recognised and discussed, I imagine we’ll see more people questioning businesses on their stance on AI and how they’re using it.
This year I expect we’ll see some businesses diving in to AI headfirst and some being more considered. However, one thing is true for all, those that invert time building a proper strategy around it will be the eventual winners.